Since there seems to be much confusion about what songs are able to be played in Lego: Rock Band, I’ve decided to pull together a post explaining how the ratings for each song within Rock Band have been determined.

We all are aware that Harmonix came out with Rock Band in 2007, and with it the ability to download additional songs each week.  The original game had an ESRB rating of T for Teen for the game.  Lyrics with offensive language were censored, as the T for Teen rating roughly meant PG-13, so language not suitable for this age group was removed.  Rock Band 2 came out a year later and also featured the T for Teen rating.  Downloadable content (DLC) continued along the same lines as it had always been.

Once Lego: Rock Band was announced, it was clear that the game was intended for a slightly different audience, mainly younger children and families, based on both the Lego theme of the game and the easier gameplay options.  This game now featured an E for Everyone (10+) ESRB rating, appropriate based on the target audience.  With the exception of the Beatles: Rock Band, Harmonix’s business plan for the Rock Band franchise has always been to include interoperability of all Rock Band games, specifically the ability to export songs from one disc to be played in another.  However there was a new problem with marketing to a different audience.  Harmonix noted that even though DLC songs had censored some of the language for the songs, the subject matter of the songs may not be appropriate for younger children.   They decided that instead of completely restricting all previous DLC to be played in Lego: Rock Band, they would go through each song released for the franchise and determine its individual rating based on the content and nature of the song.

So this is where we are at now.  We have two different ratings.

The first rating, “Family Friendly,” means that the song’s “content may be suitable for players of all ages. These tracks may contain the infrequent use of mild language.”

The second rating, “Supervision Recommended,” means these “tracks may contain suggestive lyrics and the infrequent use of strong language.”

You can find Harmonix’s page dedicated to the new songs’ ratings here, a full list of all songs appearing in Rock Band (including each song’s rating) here, and the ESRB’s ratings guide here.

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